Some time last year, I forget the precise date, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked in the Commons whether the UK was becoming a Police State. He echoed the question with sufficient surprise to give weight to his evident anger and belief that the question was unjustified.
In the light of the government's latest proposals regarding Police stop-and-search powers, Mr Blair's response at the time may have been quite justified; if we were not on the dangerous road to fascism then, we certainly are now.
I believe in the rule of law; I also believe in the principle of English law from which the Police draw their powers, specifically that the populace give their consent to be policed.
The latest move to remove both the requirement for record-keeping on searches but also to grant Police the power to stop-and-search without reason or cause is a gross violation of that consent. The very word "Police" derives from the same Greek roots as "Politics", "Populace" and "Politician"; Polis, meaning "the people". The very word "Policeman" means "man of the people". The new measures proposed will set the Police apart from the people, divorcing them utterly from the moral basis of their powers and fundamentally undermining the ethical rule of law; the new measures are a violation of the "unwritten constitution" of the UK and are fundamentally unlawful.
The natural response of an innocent citizen to an unjustified search is to refuse; the consequence of such a refusal will result in illegal assault of innocent citizens by the Police. Should a citizen offer physical resistance to unlawful and unjustified arrest, the next escalating stage of consequences will be the use of steel batons, CS sprays and Taser weapons to beat the victim into submission in readiness for incarceration and persecution by the state. The Police will cease to be public protectors and become de-facto agents of an oppressive regime.
Another foreseeable consequence is that these measures remove any protection of women in our society from sexual abuse, in public, by Police officers. The mere threat of this danger will inflame relations with the Muslim population in particular, further damaging British society.
